


It Won't Be Like This For Long

by AllHaleOlicity



Series: Untold Stories: Next Gen [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-25 11:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17724512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllHaleOlicity/pseuds/AllHaleOlicity
Summary: Green Arrow business runs later than usual and someone has to make sure he gets home okay.





	It Won't Be Like This For Long

The girls were sharing a chair in the corner of the living room, watching Miriam play with crayons in the middle of the floor. There was some kind of color learning video on the TV but Eliza and Ada were focused on the whispering in the kitchen. William and Felicity were clearly stressed over something, Will's been in and out of the house all day, Felicity was on her laptop for most of it, only taking a break to change Miriam while William fed the girls.

The whispering went on for what felt like hours but was probably more like 15 minutes, after they were done talking they walked into the living room. William followed behind Felicity, taking the TV remote from the coffee table and turning the power off. Felicity picked up Miriam and looked at the twins. "Daddy is running a little late, but you two have school in the morning, so it's bedtime." She told them while struggling to keep Miriam in her arms.

She held her arms out for William who took her from Felicity as soon as she did. "Guess I'm on baby duty." He said, giving Miriam a scrunched up face. "Say goodnight." He held up Miriam's arm and did a small wave before carrying her up the stairs.

"But I wanna stay up and wait for Daddy." Ada protested, crossing her arms.

"Everyone has to go to bed, baby. It's already way past time for bed, you should have been asleep hours ago." Felicity tried explaining to the 6 year old but clearly the look on her face said she wasn't changing her mind. Felicity sighed. "You wanna sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed tonight?"

Ada uncrossed her arms and perked up quickly, sliding out of the chair and grabbing her mom's hand. Felicity gave Ada a smile then looked at Eliza, holding out her other hand. "Come on."

Eliza hesitated, looking at her mom, at the door, then at her mom again. She slowly slid  down from the chair. "I'm gonna sleep in my room." She said, her voice close to a whisper.

Felicity frowned. "You sure? There's plenty of room."

"Yeah, Ada kicks a lot."

"I do not!" Ada quickly jumped to her defense, Felicity squeezed her hand lightly to calm her down. She had her Dad's temper, that was for sure.

"Okay. I'll tuck you in then." Felicity gave her a smile, putting her hand behind Eliza to guide her up the stairs to her bedroom.

 

Felicity took the twins upstairs and to their bedroom, Ada grabbed her stuffed giraffe and a blanket off of her bed while Felicity tucked in Eliza. "You want anything? Nightlight? TV?"

Eliza shook her head lightly, tugging at her blankets to pull them closer to her chest. Felicity reached for the stuffed panda and handed it to Eliza before kissing her forehead and lead Ada out of their room and into hers.

Eliza spent the next 20 minutes lying in bed, playing with the ears on her panda before finally getting out of bed and walking over to her bedroom door, she opened it slowly, not wanting to alert anyone to her being up and moving. She peaked down the dark hallway, William's door was only slightly opened but it was dark in there, her parent's door was also only opened just a crack but from what she could see her Mom and Ada were asleep.

She took slow quiet steps down the hall and towards the staircase, trying her best to get down the stairs without making too much noise. Once she was at the bottom of the stairs she walked in to the living room and back to the chair in the corner. She turned on the lamp that was on a table beside her so that way she wasn't in the complete dark and waited.

She didn't know how long she'd be sitting there but she knew she wasn't just going to bed without seeing her Dad. She was going to make sure he got home okay. She will sit there all night if she has to.

She didn't know how the clock on the wall worked yet, but she was pretty sure it was almost 6. There were a lot of lines on the clock, all of them moved at different paces but one of the lines was on 6 so that must be what time it is. She couldn't believe she had been up all night and never even got hungry. Then the line moved. Eliza sat there defeated. She leaned over to the table beside her, "Alexa." She whispered. The white dome on the table lit up with a blue ring. "What time is it?"

"2:46 AM."

Eliza frowned. She kicked her legs, trying to pass the time as quietly as possible. Time passed fairly quickly for a 6 year old who was up past her bedtime that wasn't doing anything but studying the living room. There was a lot of pictures of her family on the walls. It was nice. There was her family, Family that lived near them, and the family that she didn't see a lot because they live so far away. It's nice to look at.

The sound of the front door shutting made her jump. It wasn't loud, it was just sudden. She leaned slightly to try and see around the wall blocking her sight, after a few seconds her dad rounded the corner, stopping when he saw her staring up at him, a bright smile on her face that could have lit up the rest of the house.

"Hey." He whispered, walking over to her and crouching down in front of the chair. "What are you doing up?"

"Someone had to know you came home." Eliza answered, her voice sounding like he should have already knew this.

"Don't you have school in the morning?"

"You're more important."

Oliver shook his head, looking around the living room before his focus landed back on Eliza. "I'm sure Mommy would disagree."

"What happened?" Eliza changed the subject, turning her head to the side. "You look hurt."

"Just a scratch. It's fine." He gave her a reassuring smile. "We should get you to bed."

"No, I wanna stay with you."

Oliver knew the expression on her face all too well. the pout, the big watery puppy eyes, Ada used this look a lot to get cookies before dinner. Eliza hardly ever used it, only in dire cases, which this, according to her, was a dire case. She continued to stare at him with the biggest blue eyes anyone had ever seen, nothing but pure innocence behind them.

After a minute or so he nodded slowly and stood up, reaching for the green blanket that sat on the back of the couch. Eliza slid off of the chair and jumped up onto the couch beside Oliver. He tossed the blanket over the both of them and handed her the TV remote. She clicked through the selections on YouTube, landing on Buzzfeed Unsolved, Oliver took the remote from her and clicked on the video beside it, Courage The Cowardly Dog. Middle ground for bedtime.

"I'm sorry I was late."

 Eliza snuggled up closer to Oliver, "Mommy and Will were scared you weren't gonna come home." She mumbled quietly, looking up at the TV.

"I know. But I did."

"What if you didn't?"

There's no way of telling how many times he has been asked that specific question, everyone in his life has said it at least once for sure, but coming from Eliza, it hit differently. He thought about what she said for 2 minutes at least, too long of a pause where a 6 year old is concerned.

He looked down at her, "Eliza, I will always come back."

"You promise?" She returned his look, even with the dim light in the room he could tell those big blue puppy eyes were back.

"I promise." He leaned his head down to kiss her forehead. "Let's try and get some sleep, you still have school."

"Can I stay home?"

"Only if you talk Mommy into it."

"Okay, I'll sleep."

**Author's Note:**

> I neglect Oliver & Eliza content too much. That needs to stop 2k19


End file.
